California most vulnerable to disruption in global oil

Just two Arab countries have supplied almost 50 percent of California’s imported oil over the past five years, a dependence that leaves the state more vulnerable than the rest of the country to disruptions in the world oil markets.

From 2001 to 2005, Saudi Arabia and Iraq provided an average of 49.6 percent of all the imports arriving in California, according to California Energy Commission figures. That reliance takes on a particular urgency in a market jittery over Iran’s nuclear dispute with the United States and uncertain output from war-ravaged Iraq.

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